New Facebook feature will allow US users to create fundraisers for nonprofits, available to some users Thursday, rolling out to all in coming weeks
Queenie Wong / Mercury News :
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the second step in Facebook's nonprofit build-out. In November 2015 it shipped Fundraisers pages and Donate buttons aimed at organizations themselves; this rollout hands the same machinery to individual US users, letting any person raise money for a verified nonprofit from their own profile.
That shift matters because it moves charitable giving from destination sites into the feed, where donation asks travel through friends rather than campaigns. The trajectory continues afterward: personal fundraising for causes like medical bills arrives in 2017, followed by birthday fundraisers that turn the feature into a recurring ritual.
First-order effects
- US nonprofits gain a peer-to-peer acquisition channel where supporters — not just the organization's own Page — initiate fundraising, expanding reach beyond existing donor lists.
Second-order effects
- Facebook's early success here pulls it toward direct competition with dedicated crowdfunding platforms for personal causes, a contest it escalates by adding categories like medical and education in 2017 and later cutting its 4.3% US platform fee to zero.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, charitable giving consolidates around social platforms as default infrastructure — evidenced by over $300M raised via birthday fundraisers within a year — pressuring standalone fundraising sites to differentiate on trust, payout terms, or niche verticals.
The trend: Social networks are absorbing charitable fundraising into their core feeds, evolving from donation buttons on nonprofit Pages to user-initiated campaigns and eventually fee-free personal causes.